The Sevan Podcast - #253 - Taylor Williamson

Episode Date: January 6, 2022

Taylor is competing at Wodapalooza 2022 on Team MayFem with CrossFit Games athletes Haley Adams and Andrea Nisler. Taylor was on the CrossFit Mayhem team that took the gold at the 2021 CrossFit Games. She is currently going to school to become a PA, and just got married a week ago!  Follow Taylor - https://www.instagram.com/t_will7/ The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Watch this episode https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC59b5GwfJN9HY7uhhCW-ACw/videos?view=2&live_view=503 Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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To get started, just open the app. It's as easy as that. See the PC Optimum app for details. Introducing TD Insurance for Business with customized coverage options for your business. Because at TD Insurance, we understand that your business is unique, so your business insurance should be too. Contact a licensed TV insurance advisor to learn more. Bam. We're live. Cool. You're Taylor Williamson. Yes. Hello. I'm Sevan Matosian. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. We have never met, right? In person? No, not, I don't think so. Not that I'm aware of'm aware of and uh and you're across the games athlete yeah and you're a wife yeah actually um one week ago today and you're a smarty pants uh some would say some might not say what is your what didn't you just do something with school what did you do with school i am in pa school right. So I just got done with my first year and a half.

So I'm now in my clinical year. And what's PA mean? Physicians associate. Oh, and everyone thinks it's physician assistant. Yeah, actually, that just changed here recently. So I think they just actually renamed it like a couple months ago. So it used to be physician's assistant. Is that part of, oh, I shouldn't even go down this avenue savon be good why did they change that taylor um i think it's just uh you know the the the emphasis on like equality so not as much like

under the position and more like helping the physician side by side kind of thing i think it was just a people got upset about what the name implied um and honestly i'm not super opinionated about opinionated about it you can call it whatever you want but that's just me a lot of people get really into it though right yeah i guess yeah but the but the job stays the same the job stays exactly the same they just renamed it and what is that is a physician's associate is that same as a nurse um in a lot of ways yeah but it's it's a mid-level so mid-levels are like a step below a doctor but then maybe like a step above a nurse but it's really just um different responsibilities i guess so i'll have like uh prescribing opportunities um so i

can prescribe drugs and and run my own clinics and stuff like that. Are you assigned to a specific doctor? Um, right now I am. Yeah. So I'm working in the ER. I've had one shift so far, but I mean, once you're, once you're like done with whatever the schooling is and all that stuff, are you then, then do you, are you, do you get assigned to a doctor? Yes. Yep. Okay. And then, and ideally you guys would be, that would be the doctor you're with your whole career. Um, I think that some people do that, but realistically, um, most people end up kind of jumping around a little bit. So that's the beauty of PA. You don't have to like specialize. You can, uh, I can work in orthopedics for five years and then go do primary care and then go do pediatrics. Just basically it's just whatever, um, you're willing to step up and learn and kind of pick up with on the ball, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. And man, I think we're

going to get into it here in a minute, but man, you've picked up so much stuff. It's nuts. Well, maybe it's not so much stuff you've picked up. You've just picked up some heavy things, a husband, a professional athletic career and a medical career. Those are like three, just heavy objects, but I guess it's not a lot of objects do you have kids no oh my god no do you have pets i do have one pet yeah what do you got i have a wiener dog oh is he neglected is he neglected no he's spoiled rotten he's the opposite of neglected okay wiener dog caleb can we see oh can we see yeah he's helping me there that's awesome okay that's bruce and you you um but before we i want i want to jump back and like just talk about uh when you were in your mommy's tummy um but before we do you you're sort of your

claim to fame in the crossfit world is that you were on a, an affiliate team that did very, very well that, um, had some issues with the Mayhem team, team, some healthy competitive issues. amazing partner who we had on the show who's quirky and cool as shit andrea nistler uh you guys i i don't know this for a fact but but but the talk the talk amongst the fans was hey these are the two best women in the on any affiliate team and not only that it's a little bit bizarre because women were considered the weak link on teams but not in this case and not anymore they kind of have changed the way the the team competitions are looked at oh yeah there you guys are there we are oh by the way you used to have short hair yeah man you look you know what's crazy i'm gonna say this to you i'm not a fan of short hair at all you rock the shit out of short hair thank you yeah i really used it a lot it was so much easier yeah um was that was that hard to do when you did that

uh hard to grow it out no hard to cut it the first time no it's easy to cut it it's hard to grow it out but you weren't like oh like this i almost shaved this whole thing off like just now like i'm done with this thing okay and i almost shaved it off just now before and i just i couldn't like, I was like, that grows back fast. Like it does. It wasn't hard for you to cut your hair short. You weren't like, Oh my God, it's going to change me. No, I can't like, I just want to do it. I mean, yeah. Yeah. You know, you get an idea and you go with it. And then, and then it's hard to grow back long because you have to go through that awkward, awkward length. Growing back was terrible.

A lot of headbands. Yeah, so that was the hard part, definitely. I grew my hair long once and I really want to do it again. But man, I get to like just a little bit longer than this and it's crazy. But it is like a couple year commitment. How long did it take you to grow that? How many years is that? Probably three years.

Yeah, that's nuts yeah i mean it's long too have you seen that guy um do you know who ronnie teasdale is he now goes by raw earth he was he was an athlete in southern california he trained with kenny leverage it might have been a little bit before your day he used to train he used to do the regionals in jorts oh yes yeah yeah you should see his hair now do you ever see him on instagram like you pop up in your feed or something no i'll have to look him up is it really long crazy he's the guy who kind of like he was the crossfitter who got into um butthole tanning butthole like do you remember that you don't remember that oh there he is oh yeah yeah wow that's like longer than mine

yeah it's a pretty it's a pretty impressive main do you wash your hair every day do you soap no i do not that's that's i mean it would take so long i go maybe every three days or so yeah um and i try to make it like a reward for swimming oh i have to bribe i have to bribe myself to go swimming so it's's like, okay, well afterward I get to wash my hair. Do you do a lot of that? Swimming or washing my hair? No, the bribing thing. Like I do a lot of that. Like, okay, if you stay on the assault bike, if you hit a hundred RPMs, then I'll let you get off this thing like two minutes early. Um, I wouldn't say bargaining, but I'd say bribing. Yeah. Yeah. Like bribing yourself. Yeah. I i mean there's a slippery slope when you like start short making the workout shorter if you do xyz but i do think like sometimes you have to find

some kind of weird motivations to keep yourself doing things that you don't like to do so yeah i definitely get that do you ever lie to yourself i would do this stuff in um college where i'd be like okay if you study for an extra hour then that girl that you like in your anthropology class will date you no even though like i even though i had like no fucking control over it and like you never just lied yourself you'll win a million dollars no and where were you born i was born in junction city kansas wow yeah so middle of Kansas.

Yeah. That's like a imaginary place to California people. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. And you were born and you lived there. You were raised there. Yep.

Mom and dad. Mom and dad. Still there. Yep. Really? And your parents are still together. Yeah. Is that crazy? Very.

Okay. But it explains why you turned out so good. Yep. Really? Your parents are still together. Yeah. Is that crazy? Very. Well, but it explains why it turned out so good. Okay. It's a, it's a strong correlate for like, yeah. Good shit right next to it um so a lot of like uh I guess military correlations and like military kids went to my school and stuff like that so were your parents in the military my dad was yeah ah who else Ariel Ariel Lowen you know who that is yeah the mom yeah the mama athlete yeah yeah her dad was dad was, both her dad and her mom were in the military. Mom was a reserve. That's hardcore. Did you move around a lot? No, my dad was retired, I think the year I was born or shortly before.

So I wasn't like a military kid in the traditional sense. I just kind of grew up around it and had the vibe my whole life. Old parents? Yeah, I'd say so. How old are they now? How old were they when they had you? My mom was, I think, 33 maybe. And my dad was 43 at the time. So they're 10 years apart. Oh, that's how old I was when I had my kids, 43. Really? Yeah, that makes me feel good. Even though you're right, it is old. It is. Yeah, it's older. Yeah. And do you have siblings? old it is yeah it's older yeah and um do you have siblings i do not i'm an only child so the dog is spoiled and you were spoiled yeah we spoiled good um i was spoiled good

but like my grandma says there's a difference between spoiled and spoiled rotten how and your dad just loved the shit out of you like if you i just can't imagine if your dad you only had one daughter it would just be like your whole world i think so like yeah like quietly so you know in like a dad way but yeah does he come to your parents come to all your events yeah yeah they've always came to all my volleyball games everything my whole life i heard that while taylor was winning the CrossFit game, she was also studying and taking exams the same day she was competing. Yeah.

That's really true. Yeah. That's actually true. That was, um, not like a great time for me. That's life. You know, tell me about that a little bit. What year, what team? Oh, this year with Mahan. Oh, wow. Yeah. For PA school. Um, about that a little bit what year what team oh this year with mayhem oh wow yeah for pa school um i had to basically sell my soul to get the time off school uh not really but um i had to start getting it approved like in december january right like when the team started like first coming together and first making plans um and i had to like get a letter from my old boss,

like saying like, Hey, she's super responsible. She competed with me the whole time. She worked for me. She never, you know, never is late is going to be fine. I had to like write a letter to my school board, like explaining what I was doing and everything. Cause they're really strict about missing school and they don't really know what CrossFit is. So it's like not really on their, their radar of like importance, I guess. Right. Right. Yeah. So I had to just jump through a lot of hoops to get there. What was the school, the name of the school? I go to South college here in Knoxville. Okay. You already said that. Sorry. And that's crazy.

Was there ever a point where you're like, you started rehearsing what you were going to say to Andrea and Rich and Rich's cousin? What's his name? Chase. Damn, sorry, Chase. Were you ever like, would you ever be in the shower and just be like, guys, I'm so sorry. And like you would hear the speech start up? hear the speech start up? No. I mean, they pretty much knew the drill from day one. And I was also like fairly confident that it would work out. I don't know if it was false confidence. It might have been, but it did work out. So it's fine. I pretty much just didn't give the school any reasons to say no. So I just made sure my grades were always good. I was always on time. Like they had nothing against me. So if you can just show that you, your priorities are where they should be, then I mean, realistically,

they shouldn't say no. And it worked out. So I've always put school first. I've always prioritized that goal. Um, just above, I guess, CrossFit goals. What you're saying makes sense. And if it were 10 years ago, I would say, yeah, absolutely. The school will use common sense and there'll be cool, but man, it feels like just all that shit's just out the door. Like you never, like you just never know. Right. Yeah. Um, and, and, and so you, is it all by, um, all by writing emails, the correspondence between you and your school and getting some exemptions or getting some extra time? Is it all through emails or is there an actual phone interview? It's a little bit in person, a little bit in email. So I had to like get some paperwork signed

and stuff in person and kind of discuss with my advisors, like what it is I was doing and why it was important. And actually like kind of how it would affect my career and like my learning too. I mean, there's a lot of like strong ties between obviously CrossFit and like health and healthcare. So, um, I think at the end of the day, they saw the value in it as well. Once I could kind of explain like what I was doing. That's cool. Was there a moment when it was like, okay, you're opening an envelope and it's like, yep, you're cleared to go. And you're like, yeah, it was like that. Yeah. Man. And what would you have done if they said no? I don't know. I cried. It'd been really sad and I don't know, probably gotten fat. Have you ever been fat? No, not really. I mean like a little bit, but not like actually,

but like it's in me, you know what I mean? Like I eat a lot. I'm not like a small person. How tall are you? Five. Well, okay. In Cross 10 and volleyball say no no in crossfit i say 5 8 volleyball say 5 11 but probably like 5 10 okay yeah are you taller than rich yeah how's the how's the relationship with rich you guys ever like you guys good you guys ever like fight or have to be broken up in the gym or? No, no fists. No, no, no fights. No, we're, we're pretty cool. Rich is really cool. And how often are you over there? In the off season? I haven't, I've only been a couple of times,

but now that the season's starting up again, I have a couple of my clinicals set up over in Cookville and then the rest of them will be here in knoxville but it'll be like half and half so like my emergency med met the one i'm in right now emergency med um i think that i think it starts the 14th the season so i'll do like my two days on over here and then i'll go over there for three days one day two days so it'll be split like half and half if that makes sense i i think it does i mean i made up a way of understanding it in my head i'm kind of making it up as i go too to be honest so it

kind of just depends on my week-to-week schedule but let's put it in context of training for wadapalooza so basically you and andrea and hayley are are just have faith in each other that you guys are fit and you guys are going to roll in there and high five each other and go, let's get it girls. Yeah, pretty much. There's no like three days you guys are doing and working on your timing and who's going to, there's none of that going on right now. No, but last season we worked out together so much that I'm like, very confident in these two. I mean, yeah, we know each other pretty well.

Yeah. That's, that's really cool. And will it be like that when you – is the Mayhem team getting back together again? Is that a done deal? Mayhem is going to have a team this next year. But are you and Andrea and Rich and Chase going back again, the four of you? I think the official team announcement is going to happen sometime in the next month. Okay. So you guys aren't talking about it yet, the official team? We're not talking about it yet yep okay and um do you know that let me ask you this are you going to

participate in the games this year that's the plan yeah as long as i am fit enough to be on the team okay do you have any concerns about that oh yeah i mean who doesn't if you're not concerned about your fitness then you know you probably should you should probably should be, you know, Um, I like that. Tell me why, like, are you fitter than you were last year? Um, well, okay. I guess it depends on what time last year, but I think, I mean, I'd like to think as a general, you know, um, This time last year. Probably. Yeah. I'm probably fitter than I was this time last year probably yeah I'm probably fitter than I was this time last year

that's just tough because it kind of you know waxes and wanes with the season I'm kind of coming off the off season right now but um I mean my biggest concern going into the season is like my clinical schedule and just having enough time to train enough to be fit enough to keep up with my teammates how old did you say you are again i'm 28 yeah okay yeah is there any waning or is it are you still like ascending like is a 28 year old athlete you're still getting better i think i'm still getting better yeah i think i'm still on my way up and how old is andrea do you know uh she is 30 and hayley's 12 yeah hayley's like eight does she feel like a um teenager to you i mean even though she's probably she's 20 something now right yeah she's just turned 21 actually um does she

seem very young to you i always forget i honestly always forget that she's so young oh you do yeah why because she got her shit together probably i mean I mean, she's, she owns a house. Yeah. I mean, that's, she's ahead of me to be honest. No, she's very mature for her age too. I had Jake Marconi on a couple of days ago. He's 24. I'm like, where are you? He's like, I'm in my condo. I go, what do you mean your condo? He goes, I own this. I'm like, what? That's freaking sweet. Yeah. I was, I was like, oh, I own a, and I didn't even really own it when I was 24. Yeah. So you're in Kansas, and did you say that's where you basically stayed your entire youth? Yeah.

Yep. And so you went to elementary school. Were you homeschooled, or did you go to public school? Public school. Yeah. And was it on base? Nope. Off base. Both my parents were teachers.

And then after I got to like middle school, I think they both started working on post, but at that time they both worked in Junction City. Okay. And tell me about school, elementary school. Like, were you an athlete in elementary school? Like, were you already? Not really. I mean, I think I liked running around like every kid does at least back in the day. Um, but no, I wasn't particularly athletic. I think I was just kind of a tall chubby kid. You weren't like the best at four square or what's the game where you hit the ball around the pole? What's that game called? Tetherball. Yeah. You weren't like the best at tetherball or. I don't think so. But I mean, I enjoyed them all. I remember soccer.

I really liked soccer for some reason. And what was the first organized sport you did that your parents put you in? That's a good question. Probably volleyball or soccer. I mean, whatever was like offered to third graders. Oh, that young. Okay. Fourth, third, fourth.

Yeah, yeah. And then did you take any of them seriously as you went into uh junior high um i think i probably took everything i did seriously to be honest as serious as you can is like a you know 12 year old or whatever but um yeah i played volleyball basketball did track ran every day oh i'm getting this total overachiever vibe from you. At 12 years old, you were already taking everything seriously. Maybe. What grade is that? A sixth, seventh grade? Yeah, I'd say so.

Why? Why? I was bad. I was like throwing things. You know what I mean? Like, I wanted to figure out how to get out of class and make paper airplanes and climb on the roof of the school. I mean, but for no reason. That sounds more fun. And you were concerned about your studies. I wasn't? No, you were. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think it was always just an expectation.

I don't know. I didn't know other people weren't concerned, you know, especially at that age. It was just kind of that was the life I lived. Yeah, my mom had those expectations too it didn't go well it didn't go well i'm gonna look over here at the comments here real quick rich would never uh let me see crossfit now uh i used to wreck now someone said i used to wreck people in tetherball only children oh is that true only children tend to be serious people is that true i don't know if that's true i don't know i gotta find true. I don't know. I got to find some more only, only children and ask.

When did you, at any point during this, did you think, Oh, I'm pretty strong? I'd say high school, probably high schools. When I started realizing, I guess I was stronger than other girls, but none of the other girls really, really tried to lift. So it was kind of like, okay, I was trying and no one else was trying, you know? So you, and when you mean lift, you mean like in the weight room, someone introduced you to the weight room. Yeah. I've probably been lifting weights since I was like a freshman in high school. And who, and who introduced you to that? Um, good question. I think it was just high school sports. Um, we had a, like a weightlifting coach there that was, um, like a football coach too. So is that normal? Uh, what year was that? That was probably,

what year was that? Do you know, is that normal for eight? Yeah. 2008. Is that normal for girls in high school to be lifting weights? I mean, when I went to high school, it was not normal. I never saw a girl in the weight room. I mean, I never saw myself in the weight room. I would just walk by and see the dudes in their bench press and like the football team. I think it might just depend on where you're at. Like, you know, state to state culture to culture. I think it's probably become more normalized too, as, as years go by. Um, so you're a little older than me. Maybe it was less normal back then. Yeah. I'm a lot older than you. I'm 20. I'm 21 years older than you. I'm 20 i'm 21 years older than you i'm you plus hayley you are yeah that's weird um so so you get it so you like you and the whole track team go in there and they're like okay

girls this is bench press this is squat this is do you remember what they taught you this is the lat pull down machine uh i remember i remember we squatted for sure. I remember power cleans, but I remember I turned them into squat cleans for some reason. I didn't even think I'd been taught that, but I squat cleaned everything. I remember a lot of bicep curls, a lot of agility stuff. I think it was like pretty traditional, like football training, to be honest, because I think that's just kind of what they like knew to coach and train. So I don't know, tire flips. I do remember that too. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Did you, did you have a favorite movement?

I think just anything moving conditioning. Yeah. Are you, are you still, are you still doing curls? Um, no, I can't say, I mean, like there are curls in other movements maybe, but not like on purpose. Bodybuilding is really, it's, it's what it's really boring to me. There's some evidence right here. Yeah. I don't know.

I've seen, I, and I've seen rich do some curls. Yeah. Rich, rich does probably one ish day a week of like, um, like bodybuilding, like rehab type stuff, which I think is actually really healthy, but I just like, don't have the attention span. I don't like that movement to curl movement. I try it every once in a while, every few months. And I don't like it. Okay. Do you like it? No, no. I mean, it's fine. I don't know. Like sometimes I'll do, um, do you ever do, um, like when you're doing dumbbell cleans

or dumbbell snatches, you'll just do it. Like, instead of like doing it proper form, you'll just cheat and do the curl just so that like you can get some curl work in. No, no. All right. No. If it says dumbbell snatch, I usually just dumbbell snatch. Yeah.

You're a professional athlete. You don't fuck around with it. And, um, was it, as you were a senior in in high school what was the sport you were most serious about um volleyball so i went on to play um d2 volleyball in college um and then the summer between high school and college is when i started crossfit to try to get in shape for college volleyball wow yeah um going back to d22 volleyball or do they recruit you? Do they pay for your schooling? Yeah, it was. I had more academic money than than athletic money, but it was it was both. I remember that specifically. I think there were more. There's just more in the pot for academics in general.

And does it does it pay for your school? Is it enough to pay for your school? I think I had most of it paid for. for yeah are you disappointed that you at the time are you disappointed that you didn't go d1 or were you surprised no i don't think i was good enough wasn't good enough wasn't tall enough you know and did you go to the college that you wanted to go to yeah yeah any boyfriends in high school um i don't think so. I mean, maybe like a couple, but nothing too serious. Nothing that distracted you? I don't think so. Not really. You weren't sneaking out at night on school nights to see your boyfriend or? There was a way I tried to, I remember I tried to figure it out. There wasn't really like a way to sneak out of my house. Did you drink in high school?

No, not really. Like a little bit, but not, not enough to like be, you know, like a party girl or anything like that. Did you get your driver's license when you were 16? 14. It was a farmer's permit. No shit. Yeah. Tell me about that. So how, it really it really was a small town yeah if i recall it was only to and from school and work at 14 like and then 16 it was your full license but yeah you guys don't have those in california no and i think even some big cities like new york you can't even get your driver's license until you're 18.

Oh, that's weird. Yeah. I mean, 14, you're a little kid. Yeah. Wow. And so your parents got it for you. Yeah. Or you went and got it.

They approved it. And you are mature. You weren't drinking. You're good at school. You played sports. So you're in the weight room. And are you the strongest girl in the weight room in high school? Are you like, oh, man, I beat all the girls in all this shit.

Yeah. Yeah. I think so. For the most part, there were a couple of girls that were like faster, you know, like sprinters or better distance, but I was pretty well-rounded I'd say from, from the beginning. Um, do you remember when you got your first pull up? It wasn't until I was probably, let me think about that. I remember in college, I went back and did CrossFit and I was like using the green band. So it was well into college.

I was probably 20 or 21. And did you think that that was, did you ever think that was an insurmountable achievement? Yeah. At 5'10"? Yeah, that was a big deal at the time. Yeah. And what is now your max number of pull-ups you've ever done do you know oh actually i think that was just a rogue challenge um but it was chin-ups which is a little bit different i think i did like 23 and by chin is that strict like yeah

but um supinated grip and you did 23 i think so or 20 24 something like that and can you do a little gymnastics skip in there at the bottom how strict is rose it was strict i mean i don't know how strict they wanted it as far as like judging but i did it strict strict and you won the rogue challenge uh i don't i think i won that one didn't you win the whole thing yeah yeah and you got some money yeah you and colton mertens yeah oh mertens are you the are you the tallest girl on the teams at the crossfit games probably not probably not um actually colton mertens used to have the tallest girl at the games on his team coltonton Mertens was on team? Yeah.

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, he was. He was on CrossFit Kilo's team. Oh, we got to see a picture of that, Caleb. Is there a picture of Colton Mertens standing next to that girl? Wow. I don't remember her name. CrossFit Kilo.

It was interesting. We had them once over to work out with us back in Iowa. And we had like a worm hold in one of the workouts and it was like mertens holding the worm and then the girl partner holding the worm but she like bent over so she was like at a 90 and she was like even with mertens hey that that's a real problem yeah oh yeah like like like like almost like, Oh shit. So I think I'm pretty sure she's the tallest girl I've seen anyway at the games.

Man. It makes you, it makes you nothing's fair in life. CrossFit kilo. And wow. And so they have to figure that out with that worm. That's crazy. Yeah. It's definitely a disadvantage. The more, the same height you definitely a disadvantage the the more the same height you can get on the team the better who who takes the brunt of that the tall person oh yeah or the tall person does tall person yeah yeah and so usually it would be the dude but in this and both girls are taller than him

so that's probably why he switched to individual. He felt bad. Maybe. Yeah. You'll have to ask him. Is, uh, is any part of you,

um, thinking that you should be doing individual? No, no. You're not like, you're not like avoiding some sort of like, um, discomfort.

Like I like, usually like to do a podcast on because like, I'm scared to be on here alone with you. So I would like to, so I'd like to have someone, but it's not like that for you for the games. You're not like, Oh man, I should, you're not running from something. I don't know. I'm not running from anything. I just don't have any like desire, I guess, to do it. I like team. And, and I think if I did go individual, I think it would pull so much from like my other goals in life. Cause I don't want to do it like halfway, right? Like if I, if I go individual, I want to really train to go individual.

I just don't have, I don't have the time. I don't have the time. I don't have the energy. Um, with everything else I have going on, to be honest with you. So, and I like team, I've always liked team. I've always been a team athlete team athlete um it's just where my heart is i guess so yeah and you paved the way quite nicely you've made a statement with uh you and andrea nistler how long have you two been together oh uh since i think 2018 18 or 19 it's been 18 yeah since 2018 oh that's it it feels like it's been way longer than that because we've done that's it. It feels like it's been way longer than that. Cause we've done so many things together, but yeah. And it's always, it's nice because she's kind of of the same mindset. Um, how much more would it be to do individual?

How much more, what? Like you're saying, um, I guess it's time, but you're saying that, uh, this is perfect for you also to manage these other things you have in your life, school, profession, husband, whatever you're doing. How much more demanding would it be to go individually? I think it would be time wise, probably in the season, probably more significant. But just like emotionally, too, like I enjoy being on a team and I enjoy having other people out there and I'm more motivated on a team. Um, whereas if I just go out there just for myself with no one else counting on me, it's like, Oh, okay. You know, like I'm not letting anyone else down and I'm not trying to keep up with anyone else on the team or

it just is different. And it's just not something that's like very appealing for me. And it's just not something that's like very appealing for me. It's funny. It's a, that's a perfect day to say that to me about the, it, it, it helps with like emotional expenditure, right?

Mitigates your emotional expenditure that might be more exhausting as an individual. And man, if you would have said that to me any other day, I'd be like, I might call bullshit on it, but man, the last two days,

the last 24 hours have been very emotional for me, emotionally exhausting for me. And I've been in just this crazy funk. So when you said it to me just now, I'm like, yeah, yeah, I get it. Yeah. I mean, if you're going to have like big, big goals or long-term goals or whatever the case may be, you have to like do something that's sustainable in some capacity. You know, I just don't think an individual career for me would be, it would just be kind of miserable for me. You know, you have to enjoy what you're doing. Is there anything trying to stop you from what you're doing? Besides, sorry, that's vague. That's tough. Yeah, what? like a boyfriend or a parent or, um, a financial situation? Is there anything that's like an

anchor to you? That's like, it's not moving you forward. I think that I'm actually like in a super unique position that I, I have a lot of things working in my favor and I definitely don't take that, um, for granted. My husband, well, my husband is super supportive and um was that trippy saying that is that how you went well yeah took me long enough to say fiance now i have to say husband um super supportive and he he kind of gets it that in a lot of ways he has to take a back seat you know what i mean or take up more responsibilities or whatever the case may be and we're both very committed to to i guess the season and the goals at hand. Um, yeah, I don't, I don't have a whole lot standing in my way other than the things that I've chosen to try to do at the same time. So I

guess the things that I've put in my own path, um, which is, it's a very unique situation to be in. Like I, like I recognize that and I'm super like blessed for that, I guess. Yeah. It's cool. Yeah. It's, it's really, really cool. And you know, what else is cool is, is that you're taking advantage of it. Some people, especially people, younger people, even younger than you, they have this opportunity in their life, whatever it is. And they don't realize that someday that window is going to close because of time and because of other things that are going to pull you back. Injury, age, the need to get a job. Like if you can get free or you can get somewhere where there's a team behind you, like a husband, like, yeah. The reason why I bring that up is I'm experiencing this thing right now.

We're going to cover Wadapalooza, right? right now um we're going to cover wadapalooza right and uh and matt o'keefe was generous enough after we did some coverage of dubai he gave us a text and or a call i can't remember and he said oh my god such a good job let me know if you want to come to wadapalooza and i said sure yeah we'd love to cover the event can you give us access and he goes yeah i'll give you just whatever access you want i said oh that's really cool and then i said can we take the stream and stream it and talk about the stream live you know what i mean like basically steal your stream and put it put it on ours and he said yeah and then now we're trying to figure out what we're going to do there and what access we can have and when i worked at crossfit it was just like i could do whatever the fuck i wanted

yeah right as long as i didn't piss dave off or you know i wasn't standing in front of the clock like i did with matt fraser at one of the events. Yeah. It was good. And now it's just interesting when you know what you want to do and you want to get it done. Like I know what I want to do there. I know what I want to get done. I know I want to do it to the best of my ability. I know I want to pump up the athletes.

But there's like it's someone else's event. So I have to figure out how it works with them. So it just made me think of that. There are athletes out there whose spouses aren't supporting them. Yeah. Like they say even the littlest shit to them. Like, is it like you're about to go in the garage and work out and they say to you is I hope this is your last year. Right. Yeah. And that can be some fucked up shit to say to someone. Like if my wife said that to me as I came in here to do the podcast, it would be a mess. Yeah. Oh, you're going to do another podcast it would destroy me yeah that would that would I mean that would hurt a lot you know that would I mean we just have to figure out our goals as a couple you know what I mean so

I mean he has specific goals and I try to support him the best I can and I have goals and it just should work that way I feel like and if it doesn't communicate, you know. It's hard. Yeah, it is hard. It's crazy hard. How long were you with, what's your husband's name? Nick. Nick Johnson. How long?

Really? That's his name, Nick Johnson? Johnston. Johnston. Oh. Yeah, so now I'm going to have to, like, go over that every time I try to say my name. Yeah, I know. Are you going to change your name? I don't know time I try to say my name. Yeah. Are you going to change your name?

I don't know. I haven't done it yet, but to Taylor Johnston, my, my wife waited a while. I don't remember why. I still call her Haley Parlin, even though her last name is Haley Matosian.

How long have you been married? Not very long, but I've been with her for 20 years. Okay. Yeah. But probably only married. Like, I don't know. We got married when my kid was two. He's now seven.

That's not me and my wife. I was expecting that as well. And he's taller than you. Yeah. Oh, yeah. How long did you know him before you guys got married? Oh, I don't know maybe like four years 2016 so yeah i get five years yeah is that the longest relationship you've had oh yeah oh

yeah and and how did he do that how did he what what what does nick have how did he court you how was he able to there's this i don't know you that well but there's this perception that i'm getting that you are a um you are an arrow and you're just shooting straight and you're just gonna go that way until you die like yeah okay just head you're just headed off that way yeah and so for someone to um either their arrow how would have to be like right next to you like you would have had to marry like andrea nissler or chase or someone someone who's in the you know what i mean yeah but how did this guy get in that uh pat no no you can't call in you can't call in you can't talk to andrew yeah andrew you can't talk to a taylor sorry how did this guy um how did this guy get in there? You know what I'm saying? Really? Yeah. That easy. Holy shit. It was literally that easy. Can you give me a little bit more? Yeah, we were sitting on the toilet after an event and you're fucking flipping through your DMs and no, pretty much. Yeah. So I got a DM from him after Granite Games in 2016 and it was something like it was so great to meet you blah blah whatever I don't really know so I like read it and like forgot about it for like five or six days and then

something like triggered my memory like oh yeah some random guy dm'd me um which like never happened to me at that point so I was like I should go reply to that so I replied to him like yeah it was good to meet you too whatever um and then we didn't talk again for probably six or seven months. Like it was, it went dry. And then he just responded to some like food post I made or something. And he just kept responding. That was it. And when you say, you said before we continue to see how it evolved from there, you said at that point, now it is, now dudes like you're taylor williamson and there's

dudes just all up in your dms uh maybe sometimes sometimes not i mean it could be worse right right but it's not like an unusual thing to like get something from a stranger now you know what i mean um more than oh you're beautiful um if it looks creepy i'll send it to the like other and the other so you have the normal one and you have your alternate inbox i'll just send you the alternate without like looking at it there's been some weird ones oh wow um i'm trying to think if i if i'm looking at my instagram if i can there's i have this box it's primary and general yeah the general one is like the other one and then mine's just the clusterfuck there's like you get like like my wife might be in my general like i don't even know like

it's just a mess and then and then what is that do you have one that says requests yeah well and when what is that what when did that one show up on the scene and what's like why i'm not that mean but i think that is when you're not friends with them or something and they DM you. So you have to accept it. Yeah. You know what, you know what, that one, like 50% of those in there now for me are people saying, Hey, do you want me to get you 10,000 followers for a hundred bucks? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I always say yes. Or like whatever. I don't know.

I always say yes, absolutely. And I just immediately PayPal thempal them thousand dollars have you ever made any money off it no off my off my instagram account no off of sending strangers your information no no fuck no i don't i ignore all those people i was just joking i block all those people someone told me the other day they said uh my instagram account doesn't make me shit it doesn't do shit for me. You know what it's good for? I have a blue check mark that I got when I was at CrossFit. And basically that allows me to DM people and then people open the DM, right? So like there's a guy like I had on, he's the world's greatest bull rider, Dusty Tuckness. I had him on last week. He would have never fucking responded to me if I didn't have a blue check mark. I don't think I'm just making that up.

So like, that's just how I use my Instagram account. I try to maintain enough followers so that it looks like, and then I, and then I troll people who have the same amount of followers or less than me. So they're like, Oh, maybe I'll, you know what I mean? Like they think they'll benefit by coming on my show. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Outside of the CrossFit world and the CrossFit world does. It's not, it's not either hate me or you like me. People have heard of you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. me people yeah yeah so um so so so six months passed and does he tell you was that his uh her husband Nick is also one of the best coaches in the biz is that true yeah media nice um he works for proven so he um no shit yeah this past year he was with um Brookeoke and will will morad yeah will morad the proven athlete yeah um and and you're a mayhem athlete yeah oh man this is getting this is getting complicated for you i was i was always concerned we were gonna run i'm always concerned every show

we're gonna run out of shit to talk about we are not gonna run i should talk okay um so is that his plan um from so he meets you and he sends you that initial dm is that he knows at that point when he sees you that he's attracted to you i would assume so or he's trying to train or he's trying to coach you oh no he wasn't a coach back then yeah well i mean i think he coached it like an affiliate. So he was a coach. I misspoke, but not like, not like to the degree that he is now, I guess. So it's changed a little bit for him over the years. Is there, so you don't even know, you didn't ask him like, Hey dude, that like, you guys haven't gone back and been like, and played that out and been like, Oh, so you were, you were working from day one. So you were, you were working from day one. Honestly, he doesn't even remember sending the initial DM. Like I had to, I had to bring it up and like show him one day.

So I don't really know. I don't know what happened there, but I'm glad it happened. Is he pretty casual? Is he a chill dude? Yeah. He's pretty chill. Yeah. So it's like, he's not like wild.

No, no. I think we're both, we're both pretty similar. I'd say, which is why it probably works out. How old is he? He is 29. Oh, so you're basically the same age. Yeah. And then so six months later, you guys start talking and then does he live close to you? No, at that time he lived in Michigan and I lived in Iowa.

So we dated distance for, oh, I don't know, like a year and a half. Date, talk, I don't know where that line is. But yeah, we were distanced for a long time. And how it goes is it jumps from DMs to that kind of uncomfortable, like, hey, do you want to exchange phone numbers so we can can text and then from text, then it's like, Hey, this is too much to write. Can we talk? Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty much exactly how that went. And it would be like, I wouldn't message him in the morning or whatever. And then come around like two or three o'clock, he'd be sending me a text like, Hey, how's your day going or whatever. So it, I guess like the reliability was, was appealing to me too. Cause he would always contact me, but not in like a creepy way. Just like a, how are you doing?

Why? You know? No, no, no. All dudes are creepy. And then, and then one day he has to, he has to make the leap to actually see you in person. Yeah. That happened at regionals. Oh shit.

So he waited. Yeah yeah it wasn't like hey i'm gonna drive 17 hours from my house to your house to see no it happened at regionals so it was between events or like after events or something and me and one of my friends went over to go meet this guy i'd been talking to um and that's how that's where I met him. And that was in 2017? Yeah, it was 17. Yep. I always wondered if there was time to do any suiting or courting or hitting on people at the events. Or if it was just, you couldn't really, like you couldn't really do that. Like I always wondered that about the athletes. I never saw that in all the years that I would do the behind the scenes.

I never saw like at the regionals. I never saw anything that looked like, I'd say, no, like, I don't even see, I never even saw flirting. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty like, yeah. You don't really see a whole lot of that until maybe like the after party or whatever, but like during the event, there's just not a whole lot of time or people just don't make time for it. I'd say, which is like totally fine. That's not why you there you know you don't you don't like walk over to like uh lucas parker you know who lucas parker is yeah from canada the guys with all the bands and shit and you like he's either warming up or working out he only has two modes uh you don't

walk over to him like hey you want to share a band and like his band with him no i don't think i've ever hit on anyone at an event no have you ever hit on anyone period oh yeah i'm sure yeah it's not just to make people uncomfortable because it's kind of to see how they react but yeah um go so you are uh you you go to you're in high school and you're going to go to college to play volleyball where you get an academic and an athletic scholarship, pay for your schooling. And that summer you are 17 or 18 years old, had your driver's license for four years and someone introduces you to CrossFit. Yeah. How does that happen?

It was Christina Spencer at Junction City CrossFit. Junction City? Yeah, Junction City CrossFit. So that City? Yeah, Junction City CrossFit. So that was my first CrossFit home, I guess. And I remember at that time, it was actually out of her garage. So very old school affiliate. It probably wasn't even affiliated at that point. But we would just work out of her garage. And I didn't understand what pace my 400s were supposed to be or what a snatch was. And it was all just like super new and very appealing at the time.

I liked it. I liked it from the get go. Yeah. Okay. And when you would go to her garage, were you the only person there? It would be me and like some other like ladies that she was training. Or sometimes it would just be me and her. Yeah. Sorry. How did you know her uh she was um one of the at the middle school on fort riley she was one of the teachers there so so you had through through the loop so give me more details

so so she's friends with your parents and then your parents are like hey we have this girl she's an athlete and she says oh she should come train over in my garage during the summer. I was looking for something to get me in shape for, you know, volleyball and I had heard about it. So I thought I'd give it a shot. And from day one, you liked it. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say so. And somewhere in there you realize something else about yourself, right? I guess. Yeah. If you want to make it all like romantic. Okay. You realized how shitty you were and that you needed to improve yeah there was it wasn't more that okay tell me tell me

because i just you're so good and i'm just wondering when when do you really just get on the train you're like oh shit this is my like this is Yeah. I just like got weirdly like obsessive about it. Cause I just was like sucking at things and I couldn't snatch more than 95 pounds and I couldn't do pull-ups and it just, it like would keep me up at night sometimes like, man, how do I get better at this? How do I get better at this? It was, it was super just appealing at the time. And I had done classes. And when I went to school, I would always do like, um, you know,

other like gyms around the area I drop in or like do local comps or whatever. So I think it was just kind of that like young growth, I guess, in the sport and when you're super new to everything and PR and things and it's, it's a fun time. And how long are you at that gym? Um, junction city. Yeah. I would go there during my school breaks, so like summers and winters. For all four years you were in college? Yeah, more or less, yeah. That was a firework stand that your family owned? Yeah.

Are you into fireworks? We ran a firework stand for pretty much my whole life. Does Nick know this? Yeah. Is that weird? Holy shit. Well, it's just kind of like a dream for a dude. Okay.

Dudes love fireworks. Dudes do love fireworks. Yeah. Yeah. I can't believe your parents owned a firework stand. Yeah. I think my parents, they wanted to get master's degrees. So they were brainstorming ways to make the money.

And that's what they settled on at the time. Like in California. Because it was just you know side job and is that so that's just you guys would just open that like a month before july 4th of the 4th of july um it was the 27th through the 5th was like when you could actually sell but i think the work probably became it was like a month before um because they're both teachers so they had summers off so it worked out how much money of uh how much money did your dad would your dad have to buy like a hundred thousand dollars worth of fireworks like dip into his savings and be like oh shit here we go and roll the dice i don't think it was like a hundred thousand dollars that's a lot but i think you know it was significant because the more you buy and would you always sell them out?

For the most part, yeah. Sometimes you would save a little bit for the next year. But yeah, I think for the most part, they would sell most of it. Oh, hello, Colton. Oh, thank you. Congrats on winning the Rogue Challenge. You too, bud. you too bud the second best thing about this podcast besides having you on it taylor is colton chiming in the comments love colton dude he's you know him yeah just from from just competing against them oh yeah and he came out and trained with yours once yeah kind of just been around him for i don't know why i know colton how do we know each other How many words have you exchanged with Colton? I had him on my podcast and I think we exchanged 12 words. Yeah. He's not a man of a lot of words. That's for sure.

Good dude. Great dude, man. I'm just, I'm just so on the Colton train. I, it's, it's actually, it's, it's, I'm, it's what I'm most excited to see at a Wadapalooza. I'm really, and that's saying a lot. Cause Travis Mayers is going to be there. I'm really, I'm really excited. Yeah. Um, wow.

And do your parents still do the firework stand? No, they retired from that. Good for them. You know, it was kind of a lot of work. I would move to Kansas just to do that. What do you mean a lot of work? Just three weeks a year. You just rent a spot.

Isn't it just like a stand on the side of the road and people drive by and do you guys ever get help have you sat outside in kansas from like all day every day from june 27th to july 5th no ma'am it's very hot hey were you guys ever held up uh no but i think some kids did try to break in one time like with a bat and i think one of them was wearing a cast if i recall i was really young but i've heard the story one of them was wearing a cast and my dad like heard them running away because the dog barked because he used to sleep up there or whatever with the dog so the dog barked and he just heard this like this rum but it was like run thump run thump right oh so it was like weird so we remembered it and the next day some kids a big group of kids came in and one of them was wearing a cast and he was like i know

where you guys were last night at two two in the morning and they they about lost it they were terrified yeah and but they didn't actually get anything no no they never did i think that's the closest they ever were to like held up. You know, we met when you and team OC three were my nemesis and we were trying to beat your team. We failed. Nice. Nice. Yeah. And that guy, dude's got a big old brain like you too. Yeah. He's a smart guy. Yeah. That thing is like, yeah, that thing's churning and he's just constantly filling it up. Yeah. So then from there, when college is over, where are you in your CrossFit career? Have you actually started competing? Yeah, I went straight from college to Iowa at the time.

So I got, I guess, recruited out of college to come be on a CrossFit team, which I didn't really know much about at the time. But I very quickly picked it up and like really enjoyed it a lot. And is that the OC3 team? Yeah. Yep. So I moved there. And then while I was doing that, I was working for an orthopedic surgeon in Davenport and getting like a lot of clinical hours, which you have to have to get into school for PA. And where did you live? You just rented a room there or rented an apartment there. Yeah. Yep. And is that where you met Andrea? No, I met her, um, also on the internet, but I think I met her on grinding games a couple of times. She, um, lives in Minnesota though. So, so you were on that team before her.

Yeah. Okay. And, um, at that, why did they recruit you? Did they tell you, what did they see? How did they recruit you? They're like, hey, look at this volleyball girl. I bet she'd be good at CrossFit. Or how does that happen? Yeah, I think they just found me at like a local comp. They came and scoped me out. I don't really think I knew it was happening. But yeah, that's how they found me was a local comp in Des Moines, I think. And when was your first competition ever? And how did you do? And when was your first competition ever and how did you do? It was pretty early on and I'm pretty sure I didn't do well. But I don't know. I couldn't tell you an exact date.

I just remember it being like really hard and it was just like a one-day comp. I think there were three workouts that day and I was just like destroyed as one like is, you know. Are you still destroyed? Will you be destroyed from a lot of Palooza? I hope not. I don't't know we'll find out do you ever go to a competition and you're not really beat up yeah sometimes i'd say it just depends on like what it is and how how much you have to empty the tank i guess so have they released the workouts for you guys they've released one it's like a barbell thing. Other than that, I don't think they've released anything else.

So that I saw the individual workout. So that individual workout is similar to the team workout. Yeah, they just triple the reps, but split it up. However, it's the same workout, though. And all of you have to do it. I think you just break it up, however, from what I understand. So it's nine, nine, nine, six, six, six, six, three. OK. Oh, yeah. So I practice practiced I did the individual one the other day

is that normal for you what to practice them beforehand um sometimes yes sometimes no I just feel like I haven't like touched something heavy in a while so I kind of felt like I needed to see if I could still do it what do you mean you haven't touched it how long uh i say that i i've have been i've just been like traveling for the wedding and for christmas so it's kind of like been on the back burner for a couple weeks now um why did you get married why did i get married yeah do you know why oh that's actually like a tough question, obviously, because I love him and people get married. And yeah, that's why I probably.

But don't you? Well, I didn't get married because like it just didn't make sense to me. It's like walking into a room and closing the door behind you. Like, why would I do that? Why wouldn't I just leave the door? Why wouldn't I just, I mean, I'm married now, but I would just, I was like, shit. Your door's closed. Yeah, my door's closed now.

But I mean, I had kids first. So I was like, well, shit, I better close this door. But not that I, not that I, not that I want, not that I wanted the door to be open, not that I wanted to pursue other people, but that just didn't make sense to close. Like, I was just like, if I get married, then what if I, the relationship's over? And then what if I want to get, now I have to get a divorce. I can't just like, I can't just like,

like that's a super like logical way to look at things. I think I'm kind of the same way. I think that's why I hesitated. Like I would have been fine either way because my life is going to go, go the same way either way. But it's important to a lot of people, you know, which is totally, I'm fine with that too. Plus like, come on, that's cool. That is cool.

Are you, are you religious? I'd say not particularly. No. Were you, were you raised that way? I'd say not particularly. No. Were you raised that way? I remember I went to church on Christmas sometimes. Yeah, me too. Bible studies sometimes, the kids' groups and stuff, but not really because I usually had volleyball tournaments every weekend and stuff like that.

So God had to come there. Yeah, exactly. You want to see me? I'll be on the volleyball court. We did that. I think I did Christmas and Easter. I did church. And then I remember in high school, I went to some Bible studies, but only because there were girls there that I liked. So, yeah, it wasn't – because I think that's why a lot – we had Ariel low and on this morning, although the fucking podcast was a train wreck because her connection was so bad and we had to fucking abort.

But the little bit I did get from it is that she's religious and you're not supposed to have sex out of wedlock. And I think a lot of people get married for that reason. Well, some. Yeah. I think I've actually, like a lot of people, especially down south. I didn't know that was as prevalent as it as it is, I guess. It's super prevalent down here more so than I knew. And that those are the kind of cultural lessons you learn in the Mayhem Empire. Mayhem Empire, just southern in general.

Yeah. Which is like totally cool, too. I mean, it just is what it is for some people, you know. I don't know what you had as a kid. Maybe that was summer. Like when the pool opened up, you'd be so excited to be like, Oh my God, the pool opens on June 3rd, or I'm going to go to camp and I can't wait to go to camp for two weeks. Is there any component of that about getting ready for the games and going down to Cookville to to see all the homies to see like the new guys to see gee to laugh with hayley again to like swim in the lake with andrea and make fun of rich like

is like are you getting the giddy like it's interesting that you like phrase it that way because it's yeah that's kind of what it feels like a little bit um and then obviously like the you know it wears off after a while when it's like so many trips down and everyone's exhausted and it's two weeks out from the games and but no it's like really exciting at first um i just went back for like a train with rich a couple weeks ago and it was like great to see everybody and obviously get my ass kicked again and feel out of shape and just ready to go you know um what do you what do? You don't actually move? You're not going to, you don't move down there for like two months?

This year will be a little bit different than last year. I'll commute. But last year I did, I commuted the whole time. It's about an hour 15 or so drive. But this year will be different with my clinical schedule. So it'll just depend on where I'm stationed, basically. No shit. That's crazy.

What kind of car do you have? I have a Nissan Rogue. What is that? Can I see that, Caleb? Is that comfortable for you? It is comfortable. Yeah. I need new tires right now. And I think I need like some other piece. So yeah, it's comfortable. It's loud right now is what I'm getting at. But once that's taken care of. Good radio. Yeah. Great radio. Oh yeah. That is a nice car yeah it definitely gets the job done i haven't had any issues with it either i mean very reliable so so you'll give me what that looks like like give me a week starting on a on a monday you'll drive down on

a monday it's gonna i couldn't even i wish i could tell you because that's roughly make something like no but um as of this clinical rotation it'll be like two weeks or two days of working so 12 hour shifts or so um and then i'll have like two or three days off at which point i'll go to cookville get some time in there and then i'll work either two days or one day and then go there again so it'll just kind of be back and forth. Um, just depending on my preceptor schedule pretty much. So it's going to be kind of winging it here for a while. Cause the, the, the emergency med like schedules are kind of erratic. Uh, and what does that mean? Exactly. Emergency med schedules,

uh, emergency department. So the ER. Savon ask her if any of her teammates have farted during a comp no i refuse to ask that um uh yeah damn it um uh so so monday and tuesday 12 hour work days then wake up early wednesday morning drive to cookville and when you drive to cookville and you would work out there when how far is that drive hour and a half you said hour and a half hour 15 yeah okay 90 minute drive i'm writing your schedule out here and then on wednesday thursday friday where would you sleep on wednesday and thursday night um last year i was mostly in a hotel just because i would be studying and stuff between and like needed time and space but this year i think i'm staying with hayley um and if you if you stay with her is it kind of like um

she says she wants you to stay but she really doesn't want you to stay she just feels like she has to because she she's your teammate yeah i know i was nervous about that too but i don't think so i think i think she means it i'll let you know make a a post about it. I know. No, I think she's excited to have us around. And then so then on Saturday, you might train and then drive back. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Oh, no. Maybe train Friday and drive back.

And then Saturday and Sunday, do you get any days off? As far as like not working or working out? Yeah. No, not once the season starts. It'll be my days away from working out will be spent like working. And how many days will this whole clinical thing be a week? It depends on the clinic. So for my first five weeks, I think it's working three-ish, 12-hour shifts a week.

five weeks it's the i think it's working three ish 12 hour shifts a week um after that it'll be five days a week i think like a normal like nine to five kind of thing and what if that happens before the games it will it will yeah oh yeah oh yeah uh-oh then you'll only have two days a week to train with them um i'll be there after well after, well, okay. My, my, um, cook flow rotation is one of the, one of the ones that are going to be like that. So it won't be that bad. Cause I'll be there in town. Yeah. So luckily my clinical, our clinical, um, director, the lady that puts our schedules together is also a CrossFitter. So she goes to a gym here in town.

So she's kind of like helping me out in terms of understanding that i'm special needs yeah yeah how crazy is that that um the way you're organizing your um schedule reminds me of like you know when like you forget your password for like your atm card or like you have to like for some something's wrong with your power bill like they they doubled it you got to call and be on hold or like you're trying to set up a new cell phone like I hate I hate that stuff yeah I really I is Nick good at it oh yeah oh yeah he takes care of things oh yeah that's my wife too she handles business yeah you guys own a house we don't we're renting oh so when you buy a house

he'll do all the adult shit oh god i hope so yeah yeah my wife does all the adult stuff that stuff's horrible does your wife cook or do you cook uh she could i don't cook like if i'm if i eat i just like pull well i mean but if for some i mean i would make oatmeal i would start the oatmeal like i'd start boiling water and shit like that. Or you know what I mean? Or like I would, I take the trash out. I do some stuff. No, I don't cook.

Yeah. We're the same. I would just eat raw shit. Like if she doesn't cook, I'll just eat stuff out of the fridge. Yeah. Hey, here's a persimmon. Here's a block of cheese. And here's a chunk of turkey.

Yep. Is that really how you would eat too? Yes. Yeah. There, there've been weeks at school where my friends like see my lunches and they're like nick's out of town isn't he i'm like yeah and what will it be will it really be like that okay apple block of cheese and like a package of turkey yeah it'll be like just tuna packets and just like whatever i find in the fridge i'll

just throw in my bag like it gets really bad yeah and he keeps me alive do you do mustard i love mustard yeah so that's my that's my thing that like that's like my big splurge mustard oh here's a piece of turkey you know puts in like if like i really want to treat myself like take some time to put a meal together i'll put some mustard on it or horseradish. And I'm really, ah, yes. Seven. Just take ancestral supplements. I take these two. Nice. I'm not like you.

So I don't, you need carbs, right? Oh yeah. Like, like, like legit carbs. Yeah.

Like I'm not talking about like, yeah. And what, and what is the go-to carb? Um, rice I'd say probably because it's easiest to make. Yeah. Do you have a rice cooker?

No, I just do it on the stove with a pot. That's something I can make. And then do you wash that or does Nick wash it? I actually do most of the dishes I'd say. And if you, if you cook rice in a pot, would you then use a bowl to eat it out of? Or then would you just use that pot to then put in whatever else you're going to put in on it like some chicken or something and then just eat right out of the pot so i see your point because that would make less dishes yes like that i like that a lot because that makes sense to me but usually i'll make enough rice to like

last a week or whatever so for your very big pot um that's also efficient also efficient yeah yeah but i i knew exactly where you're going with that because that's also the way my brain thinks if my wife leaves me alone with the kids she'll be like did you feed them i'm like yeah so what'd you feed them like that package of turkey over there she's like where's all the plates i'm like i just put out a cutting board i just chopped the shit up on a cutting board and yeah i feed them like i feed the dog um are you when you moved out to go to um when you moved out to go to college did you ever move back home again um i think i went home like some of the summers because the dorms were closed, but no, I never moved back home like long-term. No. So you're gone. Yeah, pretty much. And, and your parents like your husband? Yeah. Oh yeah. He's very likable. I'd say. And that's huge, right?

Yeah. You want your, you want your parents to like your husband? Yeah, I think so. Does her family like you? Yeah. Yep and does her start does her family like you yeah yep her family does his family like you yeah well shit that's perfect and does he have siblings he has one sister and you want to know okay the weird thing her name is taylor yeah but she just got married so her last name changed but it's like really weird because i just took her name yeah yeah you guys you guys swapped and and how old is she she um what is she 20 27 i think she's 27 she's 27 yep um can she relate to what you're doing uh yeah yeah she used to be a college volleyball player um so now she coaches college volleyball and then she like dabbles with

crossfit too so she kind of gets it how much longer are you going to do this you think i don't know i've tried to retire like three years in a row and it just never happens so we'll see is it the um is it the sport or is it the people or is it the training yeah all of it i enjoy the training i think more than the sport um but yeah probably all all of the above just keeps roping me back in um do you think you could do you ever work out with nick no he won't work out with me he won't no oh how come no because it's i don't know ask him not fun for him it's scary yeah don't know, ask him. Not fun for him. It's scary. Yeah. You're too much.

I guess so. Like it's too serious. I don't know. Probably, yeah. You hurt his feelings. Maybe sometimes, yeah. Yeah, I think I used to work out with my wife all the time and like once or twice a week, like I would get like too serious for her. Like if he like if you were in the middle of a work, like if you guys were doing something as a team and like he didn't like transition fast enough, you would start mad dogging him. Like what are you doing? That resonates a little bit.

We used to do like team workouts. I'd say like fairly often, but I think I scared him off on accident. But I was teaching him things, you know, but it just in the middle middle of the workout, things come out wrong. And sometimes it's best to not try. Yeah. Um, I'll give you a perfect example. Uh, so we're warming up and it's like, we just would have the bar out and she would do 10 thrusters and I would do 10 thrusters. And like, the thing is, is when you, when you're done with your thrusters, put the bar down and step out of the way. And then when I, and then when I'm done, I'll put the bar down, step out of the way. But you need to slip right in and pick it up because you don't want to give me too much of a break or you're fucking with my stimulus.

Yeah. And I just wouldn't be like, what are you doing? And I was like, I probably shouldn't talk to your wife like that. Yeah. You could talk to your wife like that. You probably shouldn't talk to my girlfriend. You probably shouldn't talk to your girlfriend like that she was good she would take it but like it just but i do like working out with her and i love watching her workout does he watch you work

out sometimes yeah yeah it's kind of weird the way you said that but yeah oh it's so cool wait till you have oh it's so cool i i have because i have three boys i have three little boys and my wife and i just love watching them work out i mean i'm i'm i mean i look that was the best part of being the crossfit games i could just have front row seat like you know what i mean you just get to watch bodies move all day it's so cool yeah that's fair it's so cool um i mean isn't that the fun part of your team do you watch your team don't you love watching your team move or like now you know um lazar and gee will be there and you're gonna get to watch two new bodies move in there especially man after like like you like you like lifting heavy shit right

oh yeah and now you got gee in there and that's gonna be some fun shit the two of you yeah it should be pretty entertaining i like him he's very cool can you can you learn from him can you see and can he learn well i guess you can't for him, but can you just watch how someone moves and be like, okay, I'm going to take that? I think that's like a really good skill to have. Yeah. I think that is a thing that like I have as well. It's just to like watch things and like pick things out that you like about other athletes or other people or the way they do things and be like, that's a good idea. And then make your own body do it or use their strategy or whatever.

I think that's a part of being like an elite athlete for sure. It's just your perception of that and being able to pick up on that and, and apply things like that. I guess there's two things going on there. You have to be a visual learner, but I guess more importantly, you just have to be paying attention. Yeah, definitely. And like constantly analyzing like what's going on around you. So not just like going through the motions or getting the work done, but I guess pushing and questioning how to do things better, you know, or how could I improve? As I talk to you, I think about Andrea Nistler in regards to that and Haley. And Haley just seems on the total. I mean, not be but when i talk to her she's so chill yeah

and i just don't see her but and i and i have trouble imagining her like studying you guys as you move i mean like okay she really has her elbows driving that way the whole time and i'm gonna try that you know she just doesn't i just don't get that vibe from her i get that vibe that like maybe she's in the corner petting the dog until you know what i mean or playing with the kids but from you i do get that but but is that just is that a miss that's a misconception of mine like hayley is a fucking shark in there like i think i think yeah she she's very like laid back as a human but when it comes to working out and when it comes to crossfit she she knows how to get after it she's good for a reason i mean she's really good and um and not just her capacity, but this,

this component we were talking about, about studying. Yeah. A student of the game, I guess you would say. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Is there anyone that you met who you're like, Holy shit, they are like really the student of the game. Like, man, this person is like, I mean, Tia, obviously definitely Tia. That's the first name that comes to mind. And can you give me an example of that? Is there anything you know specifically that you're like, yeah, she pulled that together quick? I mean, there's probably tons of examples. I can't think of anything specifically in terms of like student of the game, but she's just very skilled and has a lot of poise and

she's just really really smart really knows her body really well she is really poised what's that word mean caleb poised what does that mean yeah she's crazy poised what's that mean um so tell me about proven how did um proven is So there's basically like there's there's like this thing Matt Frazier is doing. And then there's the mayhem. And then there's the thing Ben Bergeron is doing. And then there's boys having a composed and self-assured man. That's it. Yeah.

Having a composed and self-assured manner, having a graceful and elegant bearing. Yes. Yes. Yeah. and self-assured manner having a graceful and elegant bearing yes yes yeah um is proven these are all are these all the same um uh things by same i mean um they're all apples like one's a crab apple one's a like they're all just trained they their training programs um as far as comparing different programs like like is that is that what i'm trying to figure out what proven is like me like uh like i've seen what what hwpo is it's like this list of things or josh bridges has like i think the bridges training and he has like this list of things and i'm i haven't seen comp train but i assume that's what it is is that what proven is is too? It's like, there's these four tracks. Yep. That's exactly what it is. Yeah. Okay. And then like you pick one, are you an old fucker or do you want to be like,

there's a bunch of shit in between and just, yep. Follow the track. Yep. And, uh, and that's the PRVN that I see everywhere. Proven. Yeah. Yeah. And that, and how long have they been doing that? I don't know how long proven has been in company. I think it's been a company for several years at least but um nick got hired on with them maybe like last about this time last year really um he was pretty much like well obviously taylor's gonna be in school all the time and i'm bored so i'm gonna go find another job. Was he friends with Shane? Was he friends with Shane?

No, he replied to just like an application online, just randomly. I think at the time it was just an application for like a programming job. So it's just going to be a part-time program, their compete track or whatever. So the like want to be like Tia track that you mentioned. So that's what he applied for. And then it ended up developing into like an in-person coaching job as well. Is he tripping? the like want to be like tia track that you mentioned um so that's what he applied for and then it ended up developing into like a an in-person coaching job as well is he tripping

is he like holy shit this is so awesome yeah i think so just in like a very nick way like composed and self-assured and confident but yeah yeah i think he's very excited for the opportunity he's poised too yeah poised that's a, that's a great question. Did he, um, did he find that job? Um, yeah. Right. Instagram. Was it on barbelljobs.com? I don't think so. I think it was just on Taylor. Oh, maybe. Sure. I don't know. Okay. Well, if it wasn't, I know Proven should advertise on barbelljobs.com. Thank you, Will. Thank you to our sponsor, barbelljobs.com.

How interesting that you described Nick the same way that Tia is. Yeah. Maybe it's just a proven thing. He's poised. How many people work over there? They have, I think, one, two, three. One's in Australia, but four full-time coaches i think or part-time coaches in person yeah yeah that's crazy that's a pretty uh like i would think that

that's like about as prestigious as it gets yeah i'd say so that's like a pretty top-end like crossfit coaching job yeah i um i don't know her too well and i guess i don't know shane too well either but i've spoken to them briefly over the years and shane more and um there's a there's a seriousness to him i don't know if serious is the right word i need i would need a thesaurus but there's a um it's it's not heavy but but but but, but I, but I take, I, he's the real deal. I think he is the real deal for sure. He's not fooling around. No, but at the same time he did, he fools around a lot. He's an onion. Yeah. What did you say? An onion? Yeah. Like layers to him. Yeah. Like layers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is probably what makes him an interesting person.

He's, he's a really good guy. Um, is there any conflict there between what he's doing and the insights that he has with that camp and the and the fact that um you are part of the mayhem camp i thought there would be but it's been there hasn't been any conflict really i mean because we're not like it's not like i'm going and training and training at proven and he's coming and like stealing mayhem workouts or anything like that it's been it's been really relaxed and everyone's been very supportive of of our goals and i guess jobs you know because at the end of the day that's what they are they're both jobs is nick allowed in

the barn yeah yeah definitely you know right off the top of your head you might say oh is there any conflict but like i mean like what the fuck's he gonna say oh my god they're doing more ghds over there than we are we need to add some of those in yeah no exactly like there's i mean there's no secret like there's no secret program there's no secret sauce there's no secret to crossfit everyone's you know like you said the thing, everyone's kind of doing the same thing, just different versions of it. Yeah. There's the crab apple.

There's this apple. There's that apple. Exactly. Yeah. And, and, and you kind of, yeah. And I do think though, that some of that stuff from those camps is contagious. Don't you think like you can hang out long enough with Rich to get some of that mojo? Yeah, absolutely.

So the, the environment definitely that's that's a huge factor and like the programming is a huge factor as far as just attacking your weaknesses and doing things you're bad at and but other than that i mean crossfit is crossfit you know what i mean so it's not like it has to be full of drama or full of secrets or you know anything like that what was that um rivalry like with mayhem mayhem and who oh back in the day yeah uh we just really wanted to beat him i never really talked to him though honestly we never really like talked backstage or or anything like that we just wanted to beat them doing everything and and they were aware of that yeah i think that i mean now as well as well. There's a target on Mayhem's back.

You feel that, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And rightfully so. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I've been on the other side of that target, you know? You earned that target. And how did you guys end up switching teams?

And was that emotional? Did he poach you? Did Rich poach you from those guys? he like yo we belong together i just moved to tennessee coincidentally for school like i had no plans of of competing again i was retired gonna go to school and actually to get into school i during my interview they're like okay well we see your new resume like you're you've done this crossfit thing and you're gonna have to give that up now and like go school full-time because you can't do both these things like it's impossible who tells you that the counselor uh just the school just as a general like rule of thumb it's really like not

a good idea it's just a lot it's a lot yeah they want you to take it seriously because it is serious you're you're training to be a medical provider you know you have to know your stuff um because you're going to be put in situations, you know, that could really like change people's lives. So they don't want you to half-ass it, I guess is the deal. You don't want to intubate the wrong person. Exactly. So, and I definitely understand that and respect that. So I was like, all right, I'm done. I'm backing out. It's cool. Uh, time to move on. And then, you know, December rolls around, November, December rolls rolls around and i had worked out with chase rich's cousin um a little bit and he had reached out like hey you know rich is looking

for some girls to be on his team uh would you be interested or whatever and i was like i don't know like if rich wants me to be on his team he can reach out to me and then like a month went by or whatever it was mid-december so you weren't flattered you weren't flattered. You weren't flattered. You were almost like the enemy. Was there any of that? Yeah, kind of like, it was like, I don't know, like I'm, I'm done with this. Like, I'm not trying to go, you know, out of my way to go help out may him. Right. Um, but he reached out and we went for a trip and I don't know, I just kind of got stuck back in it. And at that point, um, you went out to, you went out to, uh, Cookville with Chase, you and Chase drove out there. Chase, Nick and I. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yep. And at that point, Tasia hadn't announced her retirement yet. So I thought it was

going to be me and Tasia. I was like, okay, well, this is like super weird, but it's very welcoming and everyone's really cool. And I guess I don't hate Mayhem because they're all really nice people. And it was working from the get go. And then shortly thereafter, Tasia announced that she was retiring and Rich was pretty much like, Hey, do you have any ideas on who the other girl would be? I was like, well, I have an idea, but I don't know if it's going to work or not. And of course we reached out to Andrea and kind of fell into place. work or not um and of course we reached out to andrea and kind of fell into place um isn't that interesting that um someone like rich still has the wherewithal to ask someone else for help yeah yeah that is interesting i mean like you could have just been a control freak and just been like either that or he's a chess player and you knew you would pick Andrea.

Maybe. I don't know. I couldn't I couldn't tell you. But either either way, it's a good it's a good move. Yeah. Worked out for him either way. And so what and so what do you say to her? You call her. Yeah, I called her. What did I say at the time? I think I was like, so I feel like I'm about to ask you out on a date and you're going to say no. And then she was like, what are you talking about? And I was like, okay, well I'm going to be on Mayhem's team next year. And she's like, Taylor, it's okay. I'm not mad at you. Don't even worry about it. Like I'm not mad. Just go do it. It makes sense for you. And I was like, Andrea, shut up. Like I'm trying to ask if

you'll be on the team with me. And she was just like, what are you talking about? And I was like, Andrea, shut up. Like, I'm trying to ask if you'll be on the team with me. And she was just like, what are you talking about? And I was like, and I tried to explain it to her and we tried to like briefly figure out how this would work and logistics. And I was like, are you going to say no? And she's like, I don't know. So, you know, it worked out. It's funny. I bet you 99 out of a hundred people would have been like, oh my God, I'm going to be on mayhem. And they would have been like oh my god i'm gonna be on mayhem and they would have just jumped in their car and drove over there probably yeah and and there would have been some was there any was there any crazy pressure added pressure or no like you guys had already experienced it over at um oc3 um no i wouldn't say so i expected there

to be more pressure i guess just because you because, you know, Rich has really high standards. I think the thing is that we all have such high standards for ourselves that we didn't need it. We didn't need the push from Rich, I guess, or from any like leadership source because we all knew how to get the job done. It wasn't like, it wasn't like, I mean, cause if you go on that team and the team doesn't win, it's kind of like, well, you fucked up. Cause Rich did his part. I mean, I mean, I'm just saying from the, from the outside perspective. Yeah, no, yeah, I definitely. And I think I just felt that myself, I guess. And that just is what keeps you motivated and makes you get the job done. Even when you don't want to on a day-to-day basis. But as far as pressure coming from Mayhem itself or Rich or anybody else specifically, no. It was super reassuring and laid back, I guess.

Do you like the barn? I do, yeah. It's comfortable? Yeah, it's comfortable. The music is the same every day, so that drives me crazy. But other than that, yeah. What's the music? Is it like Christian rap?

No, it's like one playlist. It has something to do with the YouTube rights or something because they can only play certain songs. Oh, while they're filming. Yeah, you know more about that than I do. I don't know. But there's about six songs on there that get played on repeat. Yeah.

Oh, wow. it the time even when the camera's not rolling i'm like okay okay can you just hijack is it so what is it is it just apple someone just does it from their iphone or something for iphone yeah you can't just go over there and just hijack that shit not really if no one else is really around then yeah but no it's pretty much it's pretty much, it's pretty much set in stone. Do you ever go there and just get at it yourself? Yeah, sometimes. So on Sundays, um, usually people, no one else would work out, but that would be one of my like heavy training days. So I just sneak in there in the morning and get like two or three hours of work done there

and then go back to go back home. So no one says anything to you like, Hey Taylor, it's a, it's a little much, man. You got any day off? No, no. Cause I take, I usually would take my day off during the week sometime. Um, or like have a cardio day during the week, just depending on when my tests were. Um, so it would be like more study time if that makes sense. So I'd just have to tweak my weeks to be around whenever I needed time to work. What about kids? What about them? Yeah. Do you, do you, do you eventually have them? I don't, I mean, at this time I'd say absolutely not, but also, you know, life is crazy. Maybe. Yeah, I was absolutely. And Nick's is doesn't want kids either. I think we're both the same, like maybe kind of thing like if one

shows up yeah but i'm not like leaving it up to chance or anything right right smart yeah yeah um i when when i was 28 there was no fuck my wife who i'm with now who we have three kids it was like we were 100 certainly were never having kids exactly that's why i'm like well because that's how i feel but then it's like yeah you never really know yeah i don't know i knew but i was wrong i wasn't as smart as you like i knew there's no fucking way when did you when did you have kids uh i'm sorry hold on one second that's okay christy a i'm so happy cast is gone. CrossFit can now start heading in the right direction. Christy. We're going to do that.

I hope the fleas of a thousand camels infest your pubic region and eat all your pubic hair. Bye-bye. Sorry. I just wanted to share some goodwill. That was a joke I heard when I was in the third grade. always thought that that was a pretty harsh thing to say to someone. Yeah. When you're in the third grade, it's made the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits. But I'm assuming Christy has pubic hair. So I wanted the fleas to get her pubic hair. I apologize. I had kids when I was obviously seven I'm 49 I think I was 42 or

43 and my wife had them when she was 39 basically what happened was I've told the story a thousand times but we were around people who were having kids and so my wife started like getting like yeah she started seeing like girls breastfeeding around her and like

other girls like women who were like, basically she thought my words, not her, she's too nice to say this, but people we thought were knuckleheads who had no business raising kids, they were raising kids. And then, and then other people who had kids were like, and she started doing that thing where, you know, like when you have an injury, you ask everyone, so does your knee feel like this? Should you get the surgery? Should you, you know what I'm talking about? Yes about yes like you're and so she started asking every woman she sees like should i have kids should not have kids what's it like is it scary and this one woman said it to her through the grenade at her it said um if you don't have kids you might regret it if you do have kids you

won't regret it and so now so the algebra there is like okay well um thank you thank you angel i was trying to be as um i was trying to be cool yet harsh you know fleas and your pubic hair is kind of harsh but but it's still it's it's semi g-rated g right it's not it's not r no that's not bad that's not it's chill it's just just gross yeah but um do do that's one of those things do um do you have do you have any thoughts on the subject like you know like if my dog got hit by a car like it would mean nothing to you i mean like you could feign some like giving a shit or like you could empathize because you have a dog but like my whole world would be upside down right for the next couple days oh um so so when i uh when my co-worker dave castor gets fired like like my whole world has kind of been

just like fucking tossed in the air for 24 hours do you know what i mean yeah but i'm assuming it's not like that for you right like you're just like you got your own shit going on and it's like okay the director of this crossfit games has been changed or yeah your dog your dog didn't get run over i mean you're not happy right that someone's had their life tossed up but no yeah that's pretty accurate um i mean i i don't it's not that i don't care i mean i definitely care and i definitely see like the issues at hand but my biggest question i guess as far as like really you're not in the comments like me telling people to go no no i'm not getting that involved i just want to know're not in the comments like me telling people to go no no you're not getting that involved i just want to know how it affects the programming like who's this new guy

and what's he going to program and how that's going to change my life i guess would be my biggest question right off the bat um you're very practical for myself but yeah situations how how is having this kid like if you were going to have kids you'd be like how is that going to affect my sleeping patterns and my 401K? I get it. Yeah, yeah. I get it. I totally get it. Is this new guy going to have a point to prove and try to make it harder than Dave? That's what I'm saying.

Or is the guy going to be a total – or the gal going to be a total pussy and make it too easy? Is it going to be too much? Like, yeah, it's interesting. I mean they have been – i'll ask you do you think do you think and do you think that there's been a consistency to the games have you liked the programming through the open the regionals games semi-finals whatever the yeah i mean it's consistent as as you can get with with castros you know throwing curveballs and stuff but yeah yeah i think so you know what you're training for more or less i mean there used to be years where people would really really fucking complain at the games like the year like

when the baseball toss was in there when yeah that was way before my time though like okay like some people would get really fucking angry and they would just straight up say this isn't crossfit like have you ever done that have you ever like have you ever been on the field like this isn't CrossFit. Like, have you ever done that? Have you ever like, have you ever been on the field and be like, this isn't CrossFit? Maybe like, maybe like the, the sprint stuff, the like cone sprint stuff that we've done a couple of times. It's not like traditional CrossFit, but I do see the importance of it, I guess. I thought the cuts, the cuts were stupid though. That year is probably why they went backwards on that. But.

And tell me, and tell me why were they why are they stupid um i just thought that you as far as the individual field went they they cut people out too soon it wasn't you were breeding for a certain type of athlete which was i mean you saw that on the podium you saw that in the top 10 you kind of you kind of bred out people too early if that makes sense. It wasn't grounded throughout. I like that assessment, even though I don't know if I'm not smart enough to agree with you or disagree with you. But basically what you're saying is like, hey, you're not upset because these people drove all the way out here. They flew all the way out there. What you're saying is the quality of the competition was compromised because there wasn't a large enough breadth of events to really let the best guys come to the top.

Yeah, that's exactly what i'm saying totally totally fucking smart yeah yeah totally and me i just i i mean what year was that that was 2019 19 yeah yeah i was just pouting that i didn't get to do the behind the scenes i didn't even pay i was just it was all about me i was in my head um the cuts weren't originally dave yeah probably not that was probably greg i think greg was in in in the dipshit ceo at the time was forcing some shit on dave um so so that so that's so going back to that so that's very practical that that um dave is gone who's going to program the games what's going to happen to the open um And, and do teams do semifinals? Yeah.

Yep. You, do you actually go somewhere? Um, that's the one right after the open, right? I think that's in person. There's open.

And then there's a quarter final. Oh yeah. Semifinals. So last year we went to Mac. So I'm so happy. You don't, you, that you compete and you still haven't figured it out.

Cause I, I, that's so awesome. That makes me feel so much better. I'm glad happy you don't, that you compete and you still haven't figured it out. Cause I, I, that's so awesome. That makes me feel so much better. I'm glad. Yeah. If Brian here, he'd be laughing at me. He'd laugh at both of us for sure. Uh, any chance you're going to cut your hair again? No, probably not. I mean, I'll cut it from this, but I probably won't shave it again. Not for a while anyway.

Probably not. I mean, I'll cut it from this, but I probably won't shave it again. Not for a while anyway. Oh, would, um, if you did, would you, would you let your husband know in advance and let him vote, vote on it? Like, would you get a say on that? Uh, I know he would vote no. So probably not. If I wanted to do it, then I would do it. Cause he would say no yeah well he's lucky because you do look good with short hair and i and i and call me sexist but i really like long hair on women like like but but then there's ufc fighter who has her head shaved completely do you know rose thug rose do you watch any fighting no not really a little bit just passively not like informed on it though caleb can you show me thug rose rose namagununas, Namahunas? I really want to get this girl on a podcast. You know, you could be related to her.

Okay. But she has her head completely shaved and I think she's awesome. But my wife's got crazy long, thick hair and she doesn't wash her hair a lot either. So it's even thicker. It's like a helmet. Her. Okay. Can we see a picture of her smiling?

Yeah. Do you see like, she could be be your sister couldn't she related to you maybe yeah that's she she looks asian there yes she kind of does yeah how much do you are you like one quarter asian no do i look asian actually i think i have like a very small amount of asian in me actually i did one of those like genetic reports. So maybe, but no. You did do a 23andMe? Yeah. Did you use your real name? Yeah.

Was I supposed to not? Never. Yeah. You got to use a fake name because then like if one of your like, if one of your like relatives, like they figured out a way, like if six people within like your 400 closest relatives get this test and then they can start tracking all of you or something. I don't know. But we got it for my son and we got it and we used a fake name because we were told to. But we're weird.

We're weirdos. Well, that's good to know. You're weird too. You're from Kansas. You're pretty weird. She's in PA school. You're unemployed. You should know the game season schedule.

Fair. Fair. Cool. Tell me why you did the Rogue Challenge. Why did you participate in that? Money. There's a new workout. Wow.

Okay. Yeah. Before we look at that, I bet you Colton Mertens would say the exact same thing. Did you know you would win? Um, no, I didn't even know like the big challenge. The overall challenge was the thing when I started doing it, it was the 50, the 50 Cal challenge was the first thing I thought it was a one-time thing. Um, and then they just kept popping up. So I just kept doing them just to see what would happen. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. And you're stoked that you won it. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Why, why wouldn't you be right. And do you know what you're

doing with the money? Um, no, I don't know yet. I know I want to buy a mountain bike. Did Andrea or Haley do it? Um, I think Andrea has done a couple of them. There've been probably like 10, 12 ish challenges over the last year. And you did all, you did enough of them there have been probably like 10 12 ish challenges over the last year and you did all you did enough of them so that you became some sort of champion of them yeah yeah did you do all of them overall score i didn't do all of them but i did most of them do you get an email since like your regulars being like hello taylor challenge six has been announced no unfortunately not oh they need that so if you're not paying attention to their instagram one can just come and go yeah i think that actually happened to andrea on one of them

and she was so mad i didn't tell her about it i'm like why would i tell you about it you're gonna maybe beat me at it oh shit yeah she was so mad wow yeah ladies and gentlemen this is a level of competition that i have never experienced um tell me um i yes i am the true ceo of crossfit i'm okay let's look well let's look at that workout caleb i can tell taylor got all is getting like let's see it let's see it please so we don't even know which um which workout this is right if this is oh it's a team it's workout four so they've introduced the first workout now this is, right? If this is, oh, it's a team, it's workout four. So they've introduced the first workout. Now this is the fourth workout.

They don't introduce them in a row. I think they just do whatever they want to do as far as announcing them. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Fair enough. Um, uh, so the team is 50 D ball cleans, 50 burpee box, jump, soap, jump overs, 10 legless rope climbs, 10 rope climbs. rope climbs oh cool have you ever seen

that before um yeah okay uh you know what i'm talking about like the mix of legless and yeah legless okay yeah i like it legless so that's good fixed 50 box uh jump overs 50 dumbbell kettlebell hang to overhead time cap 12 minutes wow oh so okay full wad details and movement standards can be found so all of you will have to do that or you don't even know i don't even know i know what you know right now i'm guessing you split up the reps however um or maybe there'll be some synchro in it but yeah let me see again caleb and that would make sense sorry caleb and that would make that would make um sense why it's 12 minutes yeah i didn't split it up however

that seems so fast yeah so basically you you you could do you could do 10 of those d-ball cleans and then hayley could do 10 and it said and then though and then you don't know what the weight is either. No, I bet it's probably not too heavy, though. Yeah, good thing Haley's good at legless. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. No, it looks fun.

It looks like a good workout. Are you guys going to win that? I don't know. Not this event. I mean, Wadapalooza. Also, I don't know, but I hope so. That's the plan, right? Have you looked at all the teams?

I haven't really. Nick has. I think I have a good shot. We have a good shot, but we'll see. I don't know. What's Nick think? I think he is fairly confident in us as well. But again, you just never really know, especially, I mean, you don't know the programming,

you don't know who's going to get swimming. You just never know with these things. Taylor, I want to tell you something. What's that? Shit. Let's see. Normally, normally the podcast is very well. We've had an incredible month. It's been fucking nuts

we had more than a million downloads on apple in the last 28 days well yeah over a million congrats thanks i'm pretty excited about it and um today's awesome because now i've interviewed every no i only have chase left to interview and I've interviewed the entire Mayhem team. That's pretty cool too, right? Yeah. But I want to tell you why we should thank Dave Castro. Okay. Because we've already had 1135 live viewers pass through here, which is just on YouTube. Is that a lot?

That's a lot. Yeah, for live, it's fucking nuts. I mean, there'll be tens of thousands after we go down, like when we're done and it goes to iTunes and whatever. But these 1135 people, they don't give a shit about me or you. No, yeah. They're waiting to hear you say, fuck dave i'm glad he's gone she's not gonna say it i'm not gonna say it she's not gonna say it i don't care that much but dave thank you um i want to i want to thank you for coming on um how serious are you um during the competition like if um there's going to

be a guy there his name is matt souza he's going to have an iphone and i'm going to be he's going to be talking to people live and it's going to be on my podcast are you an approachable athlete yeah i think so yeah yeah depending on when but yeah yeah taylor when you're done with those um kettleball hangs can you come over here yeah as long as i'm not like actively having a heat stroke yeah come come find me right and all those girls are pretty fun right and you just learn hayley just it can go from serious as a heart attack to goofball city right yes yep yep yeah awesome do you hear that suza get them uh okay thank you thank you for your time. It's, it's, it's now 10 41, 10 42 in your home state. Yeah. Which is perfect because I'm trying to get ready to work at two to two,

the next two days. So I'm trying to stay up late and shift into a weird schedule. Oh, uh, 2 PM to 2 AM or 2 AM to 2 PM, 2 PM to 2 2 a.m. Okay. They're both bad, but that's the better of the two. Yes, I agree. So, yeah, thanks for your help. Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Dave.